EU citizenship and the welfare state

The chapter explores the conflictual relationship between the underlying dynamics of European citizenship and national welfare states by following the tortuous and contradictory paths of the case-law of the Court of Justice on the crucial question of cross-border access to social assistance by mobile European citizens. Although the ‘market legacy' of European citizenship has never disappeared from the scene, in the ascending phase of its case-law the Court of Justice infused the expansive application of the principle of equal treatment in favour of economically inactive EU citizens accessing national social assistance systems with a constitutional tone. Such approach was essentially framed as an extension of some classic tenets of the free movement of workers into a sphere of the freedom of movement only remotely connected with the dominant rationale of economic integration. However, this expansionary move was short-lived, since the great crisis spurred the counter-movement that still dominates the current landscape, with some interesting, albeit limited, exceptions.